Scott "Kid Cudi" Mescudi and Oladipo "Dot da Genius" Omishore met through a mutual friend, with whom Cudi once worked with at Abercrombie & Fitch: "He was a good friend of Dot’s friend named Riliwan. Riliwan’s just such a real motherfucker, to this day, that we play him records and get his opinion—because he’s not going to cut us any slack. But, being that our records have been so awesome he barely says anything. We would rap at work, and he would spit, and he was like, 'Yo, I know a producer. I want you to meet him.' I was like, 'OK,' and he had him come up. We met up, and Dot played me some beats. I remember being like, 'OK.' I wasn’t like, blown away". Dot da Genius had just started producing but Cudi claims he saw "potential in the artistry".[4]

After working together for about seven months, Cudi was being evicted from his apartment. With plans to move back to Cleveland, Ohio, Dot da Genius' parents allowed Cudi to stay with them and their family, so the two could continue working together and pursue their music careers: "I remember being like, 'Shit—what am I going to do? I’m going to have to go back to Cleveland, go back to my old job, stack some money and then come back.' I was talking to O-Dot about this, and they were saying that I had to be out by January 31st—the day after my fucking birthday.[4] So I was like, 'I don’t know what I’m going to do, but if I have to go back home, you can still send me beats, and we can still work.” I brought it up, not for a guilt trip, but like, “Yo fam, how are we still going to work?' Because I knew if I wasn’t proactive, I wasn’t going to get anything accomplished. So I was like, 'If I go back to Cleveland, it’s temporary, literally until I can get my paper back up.' I was like, 'Man, I’m just about to pass out here. Is it cool if I stay here?' and he was like, 'Yeah, yeah.' So I slept on the couch. I woke up in the morning, and Dot came downstairs, like, “Yo, my parents want to talk to you.” I was like, “What the fuck? What happened? What’d I do?” I thought I was in trouble. So I went up to his parents room, and his dad was like, 'O-Dot told us about your situation, and we’ve seen that you come to the house, working with Dipo. You guys have been productive, staying out of trouble, and you guys are working towards something.' And he was like, 'I think about it like this, if it was my son, what would I want another family to do for my son?' Long story short, he said, 'You can stay here as long as you like, until you get on your feet. And you can still work with Dipo. You guys can still work on your music. So it’s a win-win.' I remember being like, 'Holy shit. Like, really?' Because I was really about to go back home, and I ended up staying there, and the rest is history. It was really, really an amazing thing. It was a blessing just to have them in my life and for them to want to do that for me. Like I said, me and Dot only knew each other for seven months."[4]

In addition to being very good friends, Dot da Genius has produced some of Kid Cudi's earliest work from his demos,[5] to songs on his critically acclaimed mixtape A Kid Named Cudi (2008), which was Cudi's breakout project and the first to feature their hit single "Day 'n' Nite". Since then they have worked together on Cudi's debut album Man on the Moon: The End of Day (2009) as well as his second album, Man on the Moon II: The Legend of Mr. Rager (2010).[6][7] It wasn't until they were recording "Trapped in My Mind" for Cudi's second album, that ideas of a rock album surfaced. In an interview with Complex magazine, Dot da Genius recounted the recording session: "It was pretty much the same time that we built a studio in Cudi's crib. We did "Trapped In My Mind" and we were dwelling on it like, "This is crazy, we need to put some guitar riffs on this." So I had my homie B-rent, come through Cudi's crib with his guitar, and Cudi did the guitar riff with his mouth cause Cudi couldn't play the guitar. So Brent replayed it. Then Cudi picked up [Brent's] guitar and started fiddling around with it, and I swear to you within like five minutes, he had a legitimate guitar riff. He never played a guitar a day in his life, but had an ill riff that we could make a song with."[8]

Kid Cudi first unveiled the project in January 2011, after returning to Twitter and announcing a new album he was hoping to have out by the summer: "pushing for a summer release of the wizard album… wizard is a rock album, no raps, just singing. brand new thing… workin on some Jay and 'Ye shit… new mixtape A Man Named Scott thats this summah for all those who fucks with my raps, this is for u since ima be all rocked out with the wizard shit. also its free… oh and new york catch me if u can, i start filmin “how to make it” in march."[9][10] On May 31, 2011 Cudi released a promotional single titled "Perfect is the Word". It was the first song Kid Cudi and Dot da Genius worked on for the album.[11] During a Ustream broadcast they revealed a song titled "Rocket" and announced it as the second single.[12]

Kid Cudi and Dot da Genius also recorded a song planned for the 2011 film Fright Night. The song, titled "No One Believes Me", was first announced June 7, 2011 through Kid Cudi's tumblr, when he announced he will be shooting the music video for it on June 11, with Fright Night director Craig Gillespie. The video was released on August 12, 2011 and the song itself was officially released August 23.[13][14][15][16] Through his tumblr, Kid Cudi also unveiled the production credits for "No One Believes Me" and revealed that he was on guitar and accompanied Dot da Genius on drums, while Dot da Genius solely handled bass and piano.[17]

On November 10, 2011, Kid Cudi revealed that the only guest appearance on the album would be Australian indie-rock band Empire of the Sun.[18][19] On November 18, 2011, Kid Cudi renamed the band once again to WZRD (pronounced one letter at a time W-Z-R-D), and announced that the album would be released on his 28th birthday, January 30, 2012.[1][3][20] In December 2011, Cudi revealed "The Wizard", as performed by Black Sabbath, inspired his use of the term "Wizard".[21][22] On November 20, Cudi announced via Twitter that the album would not contain any profanity, including the use of the word "nigga".[23] Kid Cudi released "Brake", a song from the album on November 21, 2011.[24] The next month, on December 5, Cudi released a snippet of "Teleport 2 Me, Jamie", the album's lead single.

On January 4, 2012, Cudi confirmed on Twitter that there would be a tour for the eponymously titled album, WZRD, beginning in Europe.[25] On January 12, Dot da Genius took to Twitter to announce that he and Cudi decided to push WZRD back to a February 28, release date: "Hey guys, WZRD update. Me and Cudi have been working on our debut album and it’s almost near completion. We are in the final stages of mastering but we really had to take time and pay attention to the sonics as this is new territory for us. With that being said, we have decided to change the release date. We are looking roughly at Feb 28th. Y’all know how Cudi is’ and I’m the same way. Everything has to be in place and now it is. I know it’s late notice, we were trying to keep the date but got wrapped up making this album perfect for y’all. However for making you guys wait a little longer we will release ‘Brake‘ & ‘Teleport 2 Me‘ on iTunes on the previously said date. AS WELL AS ‘DOSE OF DOPENESS‘. Hopefully that will hold you guys over until the album drops!"[26][27][28][29][30][31][32][33]

In February, shortly before the album was released, Cudi announced they would follow up with an extended play (EP).[39][40] Nearly a year after the single was released, on November 19, 2012 the music video for "Teleport 2 Me, Jamie" leaked online. However Cudi wasn't disgruntled, stating on Twitter: "thanx for all the love on the Teleport 2 Me video y'all. It leaked but I'm glad u guys got to see it." On July 2, 2013 Cudi liberated a new song titled "Going to the Ceremony", via his SoundCloud account. The song was released with the tag, "produced by WZRD", which confirms the guitars and drums in this track are most likely played by Cudi and Dot.[41] Cudi later revealed the track is for his EPSatellite Flight: The Journey to Mother Moon, which would feature more production from WZRD.[42][43] On September 4, 2013, King Chip released his 44108 mixtape, which included the song "Vortex", featuring Kid Cudi and Pusha T; WZRD were credited as the song's producers.[44]